Many electronic devices, such as laptop computers and cellular telephones, are becoming more compact and portable. While such portability is extremely convenient for the user, it has given rise to an increased risk of theft. These electronic devices are often very expensive and are easily lost or stolen.
Previously, attempts have been made to provide means for retrieving lost or stolen items of various types. The simplest approach is marking the item with the name and the address of the owner, or some other identification such as a driver's license number. If the item falls into the hands of an honest person, then the owner can be located. However, this approach may not deter a thief who can remove visible markings on the device.
Password protection schemes are of dubious value in discouraging theft or retrieving an item. Although the data can be protected from theft, the computer hardware cannot be found or retrieved. Another approach has been to place a radio transmitter on the item. This has been done in the context of automobile anti-theft devices. The police or a commercial organization monitors the applicable radio frequency to try to locate a stolen vehicle. This method is not suitable for smaller items such as cellular telephones or laptop computers. First, it is inconvenient to disassemble such devices in order to attempt to install a transmitter therein. Second, there may not be any convenient space available to affix such a transmitter. Furthermore, a rather elaborate monitoring service, including directional antennas or the like, is required to trace the source of radio transmissions.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide an improved means for tracing or locating smaller lost or stolen objects, particularly laptop computers, cellular telephones, desktop computers and other small, portable electronic devices or expensive home and office electronic equipment.
It is a further object of the invention to provide an improved means for locating lost or stolen items, this means being hidden from unauthorized users in order to reduce the risk of such means being disabled by the unauthorized user.
It is a still further object of the invention to provide an improved means for locating lost or stolen items which actively resist attempts to disable the means by an unauthorized user.
It is a still further object of the invention to provide an improved means for inexpensively and reliably locating lost or stolen items.
This invention also advantageously does not interfere with the operating system or running applications. This is accomplished by disposing the means for initiating communication with a host system in the firmware such as on the ROM BIOS or the modem component of a client electronic device. This security system operates independently of the operating system running on the electronic device.
In addition, a feature whereby the security system transmits through the Internet is disclosed. This feature enables the security system to initiate a call to the host monitoring system even when the client is simultaneously running a different Internet application. This system is also disclosed in co-pending parent application Ser. No. 08/826,098 which is hereby incorporated by reference. This represents an advantage over the system disclosed in co-pending parent application Ser. No. 08/558,432, which is hereby incorporated by reference, which could not transmit while an application was using the modem since interference could alert the user to the presence of the security system.